FF2 FANTASTIC 4: Earthbound
by Dan Bivens
Summary: What will happen when the Fantastic Four, once again, face not only the arrival of the Silver Surfer, this time as a friend, but the inevitable coming of...Galactus?
1. Chapter 1

**EARTHBOUND**

by: Dan Bivens

Chapter 1

Having barely made it the many billions of light-years via agonizingly opening Space-Time tunnels through which to ostensibly travel, the silvery visitor from beyond the farthest star drifted ever closer to the blue-green world he'd made his second home.

Where once he would've gone to a beautiful planet in the Deneb system of the Milky Way galaxy, so named by Humans, he now felt an undeniable longing for this newest planetary home. That was whenever his peerless power cosmic was not allowing him to roam the airless void that held such universal wonder for such as he.

But now, he needed a planetary respite. He needed to heal. To regain his strength. And, most important of all, he needed to warn those four super-powered global protectors of the coming of…destruction.

His name…the Silver Surfer. Those four such as he sought…the Fantastic Four. And the source of certain destruction to come…Galactus.

"Colonel!" said the Air Force Sergeant, Dylan Maddox, seated before the super-advanced, for Earth, radar screens nestled somewhere within a seemingly innocuous set of buildings at a supposedly deserted Air Force base.

"What is it, Sgt. Maddox?" said Col. Ben Foster to the lesser member of the top-secret military installation situated not far from the legendary Area 51, while stepping up behind the seated man in uniform.

"Hard to say for certain, sir," replied Sgt. Maddox with a shallow shake of his head. "Whatever it is, it definitely came from outside our atmosphere, but it's dropped from multi-Mach speeds to a little over two hundred miles per hour. And it's definitely under intelligent control."

"Show me," Col. Foster said swiftly while leaning down to get a better look at the multi-informational radar screen. Though he could read the myriad data for himself, he still let Sgt. Maddox rattle it off.

"…bottom line, sir, the object is not much larger than a man. But…"

"Communications," Col. Foster was quick to command of the second Sergeant sitting at a high-tech Comm-system situated on the opposite side of the secretive control center. "Try to raise whoever that is. I want identification!"

"Trying, sir," said Sgt. Sandra Knightly, "but there's no response."

"We've got to assume the worst," muttered Col. Foster barely loud enough to be heard, as he next stepped over to his temporary post's metal desk in order to pick up the special landline phone while pressing a specific button, then issued a very serious order. "I want batteries brought to bear on the UFO currently above our position. Whatever the hell that thing is, I want it brought down. Now!"

The Silver Surfer, though still sapped of his usual cosmic strength, nevertheless sensed the coming of highly destructive smart missiles streaking up at Mach One velocity to impact with an unscheduled and unresponsive "blip" on their primitive, to such as he, radar.

He couldn't allow such to happen.

Standing now upon his gleaming board, his own silver-skinned form now straight and tall as the wind, at 45,000 feet, whistled around him, the Silver Surfer leveled a single glittering hand in the direction of the incoming missiles and, with what cosmic strength he did have left, sent forth a burst of concussive energy which encompassed said missiles and, with ridiculous ease, caused them to implode harmlessly.

"Though it has been years since last I soared through the polluted air of this otherwise beautiful world," the Silver Surfer said even as he dropped to his knees atop his flying board, "still the Humans react with destructive ignorance against what, to them, is an unknown visitor to this backward planet. Still they try to kill me. And still must I use the power cosmic against their barbaric weapons."

As his morose emotions gave way to growing empyrean dynamism, the Silver Surfer now, once again standing astride his gleaming board, swooped through the air with the greatest of ease as his speed swiftly exceeded the speed of sound thrice over so that no launched weapons could easily track him while he, in a roundabout manner, began quickly snaking his way down toward the top-secret Air Force base from which said missiles had come.

To the Silver Surfer's way of thinking, if these barbaric Humans would send such destructive devices skyward toward him, then they would likely do the same with less self-protected targets that could simply be fellow Humans blown off course by a mere handful of kilometers.

In scant seconds, the Silver Surfer, a scowl commanding his argentine countenance, unleashed a nondestructive shower of cosmic energies which so altered the molecular composition of the remainder of high-flying explosive devices so that they could do little more than unleash a proverbial flurry of actual blossoms. The ultimate "flower power".

"What the hell?" exclaimed Col. Foster even as he watched the Silver Surfers swift departure via not only the radar screen, but via closed circuit security cameras situated about the supposedly deserted base.

"It's the Silver Surfer, sir!" said Sgt. Maddox with ludicrously wide eyes and a voice much louder than necessary.

"What tipped you off, Sgt. Maddox?" sarcastically said Col. Foster. "The silver skin or the flying surfboard?"

"When will humanity learn?" said the Silver Surfer to himself as his spoken words were lost in the roar of the wind as the gleaming man on the board soared high above the ground at speeds that exceeded Mach 5. "When will they learn to extend a hand in peace before striking out with a fist in fear? Sometimes, I think I am wasting my time attempting to save them from cosmic threats that exceed their collective comprehension. Such as now. I can only hope that the four I seek do not still perceive me as the threat they thought me to be in the beginning."

With that, the gracefully sky-surfing super-being streaked through the skies over numerous cities and townships in gravity-defying loops and swirls that would make the greatest jet aeronaut envious, while steadily heading straight toward America's East Coast.

More specifically, New York City…

END OF CHAPTER 1


	2. Chapter 2

**EARTHBOUND**

by: Dan Bivens

Chapter 2

"Ben, have you seen Johnny?" asked Susan "Invisible Woman" Richards of Ben "The Thing" Grimm, who was, at the moment, sprawled upon the reinforced sofa watching the enormous big-screen TV in the main living room of the top floors of the Baxter Building that were reserved for the Fantastic Four.

"Ah, he's prob'ly out givin' somebody a hot-foot, Suzie," said the gravelly voice of The Thing as his huge rock-like hand tossed even more microwave popcorn into his maw. "Or he might be helpin' Stretcho in the lab…though I kind'a doubt it."

"Thanks a lot," grumbled The Invisible Woman somewhat sarcastically as she spun smartly on her well-heeled feet in order to proceed to the elevator that would take her down to where her husband, Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richard's, extensive high-tech lab was located in the empty expectation of finding her hotheaded brother, Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm there.

Moments later, The Invisible Woman made her way through parting elevator doors to walk out into the middle of her husband's vast lab where Mr. Fantastic was in the midst of yet another ultra-complex set of experiments wherein he made use of his ability to super-stretch arms, neck, and even torso to easily access computers, equipment, chemicals, and the like.

"Reed?" The Invisible Woman called, then, receiving no ready response, willed herself to vanish from view as she soon seemingly materialized right next to her husband, but was wise enough to psychically erect an invisible force field so that the startled Mr. Fantastic's spilled corrosive materials would not land on her. "Reed!"

"Oh, sorry, honey, I didn't know you were standing there," Mr. Fantastic said with both love and apology as his super-stretching arms promptly replaced vials of volatile chemicals on the opposite side of his very large lab. "Trouble?"

"No," she said, then corrected herself, "at least, I hope not. I can't find Johnny anywhere. I was hoping he was here with you."

"The only way your brother would spend any time in my lab," said Mr. Fantastic playfully, "would be if I was conducting experiments on his flaming abilities. I think the last I heard from him he said he was going to go out and fly around a bit. Probably bored."

"So what else is new?" The Invisible Woman scoffed as she turned to exit the way she entered.

"Wheeeeeee-whoooooooo!" The Human Torch, not only fully encompassed in self-generating plasma flame, but streaking and soaring above the high-rise rooftops with the practiced expertise of a superhero who'd proved himself against super-villains and cosmic strangers and enjoyed every minute of it. "Look out ladies, The Human Torch is in town. Yeeeee-haaaaa!"

Just then, even as the flaming Human Torch completed three looping maneuvers in a row, feeling as free as a just-released bird, he was suddenly confronted by none-other-than…

"Silver Surfer!" said The Human Torch just as he pulled up short and managed to hover via his self-produced plasma flame at least two hundred feet higher than the tallest rooftop in New York even as the gleaming man on the airborne board hovered as well.

"Human Torch," said the Silver Surfer even as he cosmically sensed extreme apprehension in the flaming one's emotional mind, especially since their first meeting was anything but friendly. "You are just the person I am seeking."

"Hey, I thought we'd settled all this!" exclaimed The Human Torch as he mentally prepared himself for the hurling of flaming balls at a being he already knew could not be so easily vanquished. "Don't tell me you've come all the way back to Earth for a rematch, dome-head!"

At first, Silver Surfer's face took on the expression of someone utterly mystified by the statements of a sentience who was far beneath the former Zenn-Laan, then the sparkling cosmic humanoid said, "No. I have come to warn you…as well as the rest of the Fantastic Four. Galactus is coming…again."

"Ah, great," lamented the flaming Human Torch, "just when I thought it was safe to soar through the skies of New York again."

END OF CHAPTER 2


	3. Chapter 3

**EARTHBOUND**

by: Dan Bivens

Chapter 3

Two figures, one flaming and the other astride a silvery surfboard, both streaking effortlessly through the skies of New York even as The Human Torch bemoaned, "Listen, Surfer, are you sure that Galactus is coming to Earth? I mean, after we beat him before…"

"Yes, Human Torch," said the Silver Surfer as he stood both stoically and easily atop the board with which such as he could either traverse the deepest reaches of space-time or zip through Earth's atmosphere at up to Mach 5. "I wish such was not the case, but ever since his return from certain death…"

"Yeah, yeah, so you've already told me, chrome-dome," confidently quipped The Human Torch as his self-generated plasma flame allowed him to streak along with the speed of a missile, while remembering that only the combined might of the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer actually halted the hungry Galactus once before. "Well, we stopped old helmet head before, I'm sure we can pull the plug on his desire to digest our planet again."

"Excuse me, Human Torch," puzzled the Silver Surfer, purposely soaring at a slowed pace so as not to outdistance the flaming human next to him, "'pull the plug'?"

"Ya know, Surfer," satirically said the Human Torch, "if you're gonna hang around us backward Humans, you need to at least learn the lingo."

Meanwhile, in the short span of time it would take The Human Torch and the Silver Surfer to reach the high-rise home of the Fantastic Four…

Galactus' erstwhile vessel, the solar system-sized homeworld called Taa II by the Planet-Eater himself, had quickly crossed untold billions of light-years via rapidly erected tunnels through space-time in the same general direction as taken by the Silver Surfer upon learning of his cosmic master's noisome desires to revisit a planet filled with the life-energies such as he so greedily hungered for…more than any other the Devourer or Worlds had inevitably encountered in his more than 13 billion years of near-eternal life.

"Earth!" thundered the godlike voice of the wondrous wielder of the power cosmic while seated in the center of a ship more astonishingly awe-inspiring than any single planet yet visited by the bringer of ultimate destruction. "So seemingly insignificant in the cosmic scheme and yet so filled to overflowing with immeasurable life-energy! It was a mistake to allow myself to be so easily defeated by the Fantastic Four and my twice traitorous herald, the Silver Surfer! Nothing shall stop me from siphoning away all of its cosmic subsistence in order to so strengthen myself that I may traverse the universe for centuries before next needing to feed!"

With a sweep of a single purple-gloved hand, the current time-appropriate holographic images of not only Earth and its Humans in general, but the Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer in particular, shimmered into luminous life directly before the seated, in order to conserve his vast cosmic strength prior to planetary feeding, Galactus.

"You shall not defeat me again!" rumbled the immaculate vociferation of the third force of the universe as his solar system-sized worldship once again utilized space-time tunneling to quickly cross millions, then billions, of light-years. From one side of the vast cosmos to the other in less time than it would take rocket-carried Humans to so much as reach their lone lunar body. "Galactus shall feed! And the Silver Surfer, this time, shall die!"

"Let me get this straight, Surfer," said Mr. Fantastic minutes after their silvery visitor from space had retold the same tale he'd originally told to The Human Torch. "Galactus, whom we, as a super-team of five, defeated before, when he wished to feed upon the life-forces of Earth, is on his way back to finish what he started?"

"That is essentially correct, Reed Richards," said the Silver Surfer as his shining board hovered nearby like some obedient beast. "I estimate that it will take only another hour or so before his solar system-sized ship penetrates the outermost orbits of your planetary planes. Then…"

"But you also said," chimed in The Invisible Woman from her husband's side, her incredibly lovely features grimacing greatly as she struggled with all she'd heard, "that Galactus had physically died recently…thanks to your deceptive deeds…but he ended up defeating Death herself?"

"Yes, Susan Richards," said the Silver Surfer as he subconsciously compared this Human beauty with one from the once fantastic Zenn-La who had been his solitary love. "Now that he has regained his right to corporeal life, his ability to obtain and utilize the power cosmic has become significantly stronger. I fear that we may not be able to defeat him this time."

"Aw, what're ya worried about, Surfer?" snarled the gregarious gravelly voice of The Thing, who had been propped resistively against a reinforced section of wall within the family room of the Fantastic Four's floors atop the Baxter Building. "We beat ol' Bucket-head before, we'll beat his large purple butt again. What's to worry?"

"A lot, Ben," Mr. Fantastic said solemnly as he super-stretched his arms to enter a curious set of statistics into one of many supercomputers situated in virtually every room within the multi-floor Fantastic Four section. "If even a fraction of what the Silver Surfer says about Galactus is true, his power level could literally be much more than what he had the first time we tackled him. And, if that's the case…"

"I'm with Ben," proudly proclaimed a flamed-off Human Torch, while playfully flaming on-and-off a single hand in a similar fashion as he'd done so long ago when he first discovered his cosmic ray granted super-power. "We whooped Galactus' ass the last time he tried to turn Earth into his own planet-sized buffet and we sent him packing then. We can do it again. I mean…we are the Fantastic Four, ya know, and the Silver Surfer's…well, the Silver Surfer."

"I don't know, Johnny," said Mr. Fantastic as he super-stretched his neck so that he could get a closer look at the family room's supercomputer screen without moving from where he stood with the rest of the super-group. "According to these figures, based upon theories and equations connected with cosmic energies comparable to the level of several Sol-sized stellar bodies, combined with the…"

"In American, Rubber-boy," snappishly said The Thing with a roll of his eyes and a deep-voiced sound of derision. "How many times do I gotta tell ya…we no speakee scientifee."

"Bottom line, Ben," sighed Mr. Fantastic after returning his super-stretched arms and neck back to normal, "Galactus' power level's going to be at least a million times greater than it was when we first fought him! That 'American' enough for you?"

"Uh, yeah," said an flustered Thing as he shifted nervously on his enormous rock-like legs and feet. "Crystal."

"So," said a still-not-scared Human Torch, "we just hit him with a little more than we did before. No matter how cosmic the guy is, he's still just a baddie in need of a bashing."

"No, Johnny," groaned a frustrated Mr. Fantastic, "he's not. He's a force of nature unlike anything Humans…even Humans with super-powers…are capable of comprehending, let alone battling."

"Oh, Reed," said The Invisible Woman, frankly afraid for the first time, "what can we do?"

"That, Sue," heaved Mr. Fantastic with a frown, "is a very good question."

END OF CHAPTER 3


	4. Chapter 4

**EARTHBOUND**

by: Dan Bivens

Chapter 4

Galactus' great worldship, Taa II, momentarily, in the vast cosmic scheme of eternal time, appeared some 2.5 million light-years from not only Earth, but from Earth's galaxy, colloquially called the Milky Way by its Human inhabitants, who, not surprisingly, comprised an exceptionally small fraction of the totality of intelligent life-forms.

Galactus needed what Humans might primitively call "a quick snack" as his solar system-sized vessel reemerged in normal space-time within what Humans had designated, long ago, as the Andromeda Galaxy. Which just happened to be home to a race of super-advanced shapeshifting subjugators called the Skrull.

In the span of several hundred Human lifetimes, the shapeshifting Skrull race had made use of not only their inane ability to alter their form, which made them natural infiltrators, but their advanced scientific comradeship only added to their inevitable capability to conquer entire solar systems for thousands of light-years about their original homeworld, Skrullos. A planet previously dominated by reptilians of all conceivable categories, until such time, in the dimness of their distant past, when "something" changed them and, therefore, the course of their prehistory.

The Skrulls arose with not only rapidly growing intellect, but the remarkable ability to change their exact shape, both in size and functionality, until they became so expert at such that they could utilize star-spanning warships to infiltrate other relatively advanced planets within the self-same Andromeda Galaxy until, over the passing of centuries, they vanquished from both within and without.

As an unfortunate evolutionary aspect of their species, rising as it did from reptilian stock, the Skrulls arose without warm-bloodedness which, for all humanoid races they had either killed or conquered, they were completely incapable of Love save when it came time to procreate and perpetuate their superior species.

Thus servitude under the Skrull Empire proved especially cruel and cold, meaning many planets did not survive their savage mastery.

As stupendously advanced as the Skrull were and as vast in true number, roughly a couple of hundred trillion, they held no hope of withstanding the likes of Galactus.

And, so, fight as they did with interstellar warships and space fighters, in the end not only their homeworld of Skrullos, but virtually every other Skrull-occupied planet, were not only obliterated in a battle that was doomed to never convey victory, but some, like Skrullos, were viciously ravaged by the Planet-Eater so that its supreme life-force provided cosmic sustenance for the supreme Devourer of Worlds.

Thus, leaving the Skrull Empire forever fragmented and with seriously diminished numbers scattered throughout the galaxy they once possessed, Galactus once again reentered Taa II and shaped the necessary space-time tunnels through which he could traverse vast sections of the universe far more rapidly than any could conceive.

Save for the likes of the Silver Surfer.

Who, even now, on the planet called Earth, plotted alongside the Fantastic Four to stand their ground, relatively speaking, on a beautiful blue-green world the Silver Surfer had claimed as his newest home.

"Live or die," swore the Surfer to the Fantastic Four as all five stood atop the Baxter Building's high-rise roof searching the skies for the coming of the personified source of the power cosmic. "We shall make our stand. I now fight for a planet that, in lieu of my own Zenn-La, long since lost to me, now holds sway within my soul. As each of you now stand as fast friends…forevermore."

Bursting forth from his space-time tunnel like some cosmic child bursting forth from its mother's womb of infant infinity, Galactus' worldship, Taa II, entered the furthest reaches of Earth's solar system.

So massive and mighty was the inconceivable vessel that the currently contested "ninth planet", Pluto, was smashed into spinning pieces no bigger than a boulder when the spheroid essentially collided with the cosmos-spanning ship's hull. In one frozen instant in space, the recalcitrant question of whether or not Pluto was a planet or merely a Kuiper Belt object…was incontestably settled.

Moving at a space-normal speed of some one billion miles per minute, Galactus' worldship would soon come within striking distance…or, more accurately stated, within feeding distance…of the beautiful blue-green planet Men called Earth.

Upon which, at that self-same instant…

"Galactus is here," said Silver Surfer's indescribably beautiful voice, issuing forth from his shining face, currently forming a frowning scowl. "He is in your solar system…and shall be as close to Earth as his colossal ship can come…whereupon the planetary life-energy feeding shall commence. If we are to stop him, we must engage him in all-out battle the instant he deigns to descend with his Elemental Converter. No quarter can be granted. No pause permitted. Or else…your world…your people…die."

"Yeah, yeah, ya told us that a'ready," snarled the rock-skinned Ben "The Thing" Grimm as he stood ready to fight with huge hands tightly clenched into two stupendous fists. "Let's just get this show on the road."

"I'm with you Ugly," said Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm even as he now fully flamed on with his self-generating plasma quickly allowing him to hover a few feet above the rooftop of the Baxter Building. "As soon as that big creep starts comin' down to the Big Apple, I'm gonna hit him with my nova flame! We'll see how long he can handle that."

"I know how you feel, Johnny," Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards was swift to say, "but you've got to remember how improbably powerful Galactus truly is. He's older than our universe. Even at his weakest, he could withstand the combined assault of all the Earth's nuclear missiles and never bat an eye. Brute force alone will not…"

"Reed, darling," softly said Sue "The Invisible Woman" Richards to her husband, "it'd be better if you at least let us think we can win…otherwise we're likely to allow our doubts to defeat us…before Galactus even strikes."

"Susan Richards is quite correct," nodded the silvery skinned cosmic being from beyond in a hushed aside to the undisputed leader of the Fantastic Four. "I am also concerned as to our slender possibilities for success, but…should we, even subconsciously, accept the seeming futility of this fight against the architect of the power cosmic, then…"

"Understood, Silver Surfer," said Mr. Fantastic with curt clip to his usually scientifically confident tone. "Can you 'sense' exactly when he will…?"

"Yes, Reed Richards," answered the Silver Surfer in a strong tone and stronger facial affectation as he lifted his silver-filmed eyes to the daytime sky. "The very instant Galactus leaves his worldship to descend toward this planet…toward us…I shall know."

"Ya know, Stretcho," grumbled The Thing via his gravely voice, "it'd sure be nice to have some super-powered partners to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us in this here fight."

"Yes," sighed Mr. Fantastic, his genius mind multitasking even as he asked himself that self-same question. "It would."

END OF CHAPTER 4


	5. Chapter 5

**EARTHBOUND**

by: Dan Bivens

Chapter 5

In the short passage of Earthly time that had elapsed for the five atop the Fantastic Four's Manhattan high-rise headquarters, Galactus' worldship, Taa II, had crossed the four-plus billion miles separating him from his singular destination, taking care to not impact with any more true worlds as he had done with puny Pluto.

Now, at an insignificant distance of a few hundred thousand miles beyond the orbit of Earth's solitary satellite, the Moon, the Devourer of Worlds now stood within the indescribably enormous centralized section where he had sat for almost the entire space-time tunneling trek from one end of the seemingly endless universe to…

"Earth!" his unmistakably mighty voice said with a reverberant rumbling normally attributed to deities and demigods. "So seemingly commonplace in such a vast cosmic swirl! Only here can I find, for my consumption, the greatest aggregation of life-energies in untold billions of light-years! Enough to ensure that such as I shall not need to endure The Hunger for a dozen centuries of cosmological time! Therefore, it is far too important for me to have honored an earlier promise to a formerly faithful herald! A herald who now stands with these primitive Humans! The Silver Surfer! So be it!"

Knowing beyond knowing, in regards to the expected battle to take place the instant such as he dropped down through the scattered clouds covering that peculiar point of greatest life-energy, New York, Galactus never-the-less, using his infinitely unlimited power cosmic, began the assembling of his massive Elemental Converter. All well within the cosmic senses of…

"He has arrived!" said the Silver Surfer with more power to those three words than mere mortals could comprehend. Then, in a much more comfortably understandable tone, "He shall finish the cosmic assemblage of his Elemental Converter in mere moments, Reed Richards. We must be ready. There can be no hesitation. No mistake. No doubt. Not now."

With a smile on his handsome-for-a-scientist face, the super-elastic Mr. Fantastic placed a hand gently and reassuringly upon the silvery shoulder of the Surfer and said, "Not to worry. We're ready. The Fantastic Four…now, for this fight at least, Five…shall not falter. We'll follow your lead. All the way."

"Still too bad, though," mused The Human Torch aloud while starting to hover a little higher above the roof's surface. "It'd be wicked great if we had some surprise super-help once we start fighting ol' purple pants."

Suddenly, the Silver Surfer allowed the flaming one's simplistically stated wish to touch some long lost memories within the mind of an immortal humanoid such as himself, thanks to Galactus' transformation of him an unknown, even to the Surfer, number of millennia ago. Memories of other heralds to Galactus. Failed heralds, similar to him. Heralds from worlds forming the proverbial corners of the cosmos. Worlds, like Zenn-La, long since erased by the passage of time…and, quite possibly, by Galactus, himself.

It was then that one separate part of his cosmically multitasking thoughts sent out a silent call for help that he hoped former heralds could somehow perceive and, most important of all, respond to. But for the moment…

"He is coming down!"

"A'right, boys and girl," gutturally growled The Thing while smacking one rocky fist into the open palm of the other, creating a raucous crack that caught the attention of the others. "It's clobberin' time!"

"Yeeeeeeee-whooooooo!"

While the Silver Surfer encased three of the Fantastic Four in a force bubble co-created by The Invisible Woman, so beautifully close to she whom the Silver Surfer had lost so long ago, even though his heart still ached for her tender touch, which the wielder of the power cosmic caused to lift those three into the air even as he stood astride his flying surfboard of gleaming material so similar to his own cosmic skin…

The Human Torch, self-generating flame burning brightly and hotly, allowed the young man to streak skyward like a human-sized missile, at pretty much the same speed as such, in preparation for a fight the likes of which New York had not seen…since the first one.

"Ah!" thunderously chortled the Planet Eater in purple, even as the cosmic eyes within the huge helmet covering his humanoid head gazed straight down while easily levitating both himself and his massive Elemental Converter down, down, down through the sky stretched out over the City That Never Sleeps. "Once more am I to be confronted by the mightiest of Humans alongside my most recent herald, the Silver Surfer! Though I am still low on pure cosmic power, regardless of the galactic fact that I consumed the scientifically advanced though life-energy inadequate planet of the shapeshifting Skrulls in the Andromeda Galaxy not so very long ago, The Hunger is still great! Therefore, I dare not expend too much of the cosmic might within my magnificent frame…but I still have enough…for such irresponsible rabble!"

"Now!" shouted the Silver Surfer even as Mr. Fantastic had started to react in the same split-second of real time. "Attack from all sides all as a singular force! It is your only chance!"

Now relying upon their own singular super-powers, the Fantastic Four began their prodigious bid to defeat the undefeatable on behalf of their honor…and Earth.

The first to strike was, not surprisingly, the hotly flaming Human Torch as he struck straight at Galactus' exposed face from its left side. A bid made more for distraction than destruction.

"Hey, Galactus! Have you shaved today?" tauntingly shouted The Human Torch as he hurled nova flame force into the seeming skin of the purple helmeted giant currently hovering, so effortlessly and so majestically, hundreds of stories above the suddenly stupefied city this fighting contingent, including the Silver Surfer, called home. "Let's see if turning up the heat to something just this side of our own sun exploding right onto that smug face of yours might cause you to flinch…just a little!"

Giving it everything he had and then some, almost using up his self-generating plasma in the process, The Human Torch managed to distract the Planet Eater for all of a millisecond or, possibly, two…which was enough for another of his super-team to attack.

Being thrust forward by a burst of both The Invisible Woman's and Silver Surfer's still intact force bubble, sort of like an invisible catapult of incredible power, The Thing's massive form of rock, containing almost immeasurable super-strength, was sent into the exposed nose of the supreme progenitor of the power cosmic with both bombastic fists held rigidly ahead of him like a stiff battering ram of living rock.

"Hey, there, Gallie baby," he shouted while still in flight, "wanna go a couple'a rounds with Ol' Benji? I used t'be the boxin' champ o' the Bronx back before I flew fighter jets and space shuttles! And before I became a pile o' rocks!"

Impacting with the total concussive force of a building bursting bomb, all The Thing managed to do, before dropping down after rapid recoil, was to, for the briefest of moments, send the huge helmeted head of the Devourer of Worlds snapping back in what, for a mere Human, would've been the end result of a brain-rattling power-punch within the squared circle of some smoke-filled boxing venue.

Other than that, all it served to do was irritate the most cosmically powerful personage in the entire universe…

…even as Mr. Fantastic super-stretched his limbs and body in such a fashion so as to form an airtight multi-enveloping muzzle of incomprehensible size. Which, unfortunately for the leader of the Fantastic Four, had the unhappy effect of eliciting incredible pain and strain within a body super-stretched well beyond its thus-far tested limits. He knew he couldn't hold out for long.

"Now, uhn, Surfer! Now!"

Even as agony announced itself to every inch of the super-stretched arms, legs, and torso of the tightly wrapped-around-Galactus' mouth Mr. Fantastic…

…the self-generating flame, so awfully important for maintaining hovering flight so far above the crowded and confused streets below, was beginning to fail for The Human Torch…

…even as The Thing clumsily clutched, with both mighty mitts of solid living stone, at Galactus' great belt like the tiniest of bothersome beasties…

…and, as for The Invisible Woman, she'd now expended so much of her force field projecting power that it had begun to cause, once again, dark-red blood to gradually roll from a single nostril of her otherwise exquisite nose, in order to remain aloft while also staying ready to extend said shield about her three associates should they need it…

…while the Silver Surfer, his board, beneath the light of Earth's sun, brightly gleaming, now flew in loops and swirls, attack vectors all, while unleashing cosmic blasts the likes of which no one, save Galactus himself, had ever seen or experienced.

And though it was nowhere near enough to bring down the still-hovering Ravager of Planets, the often referred to third force of the universe, alongside such as Death, whom he had routed but once, it was indeed enough. Considering his own recent expenditure of dwindling energies to ostensibly snack upon a planet of unenlightened, although exceptionally advanced in the scientific sense, planet known as Skrullos, to inevitably inflict definite pain. And, perhaps, just a bit of momentary infirmity.

Unfortunately for all, it was also sufficient to haul forth the incomparable rage that had lain beneath the pompous posturing and espousing of personal cosmic insights delivered in thunderously blustering elegies.

As The Thing and The Human Torch would no doubt put it…Galactus was pissed!

"You shall all pay in pain unimaginable for this festering effrontery!" Galactus bellowed so loudly that his supremely cosmic voice not only shattered windows throughout Manhattan and beyond, but caused some buildings to crumble and, thus, threaten to collapse under their own weight in a similar sinister fashion as did the terrorist-attacked twin towers in nearby New York City.

Then the Planet Eater put up a fight.

Resorting to physical forms of retaliation, along with occasional cohesive blasts from his eyes, Galactus lashed out with massive fists, any one of which could've sent the entirety of the Fantastic Four smashing to the streets far below the battle and, did, impact with the projected protective force field being so agonizingly sustained by The Invisible Woman, still standing on same many hundreds of feet above even the Baxter Building's reinforced rooftop.

"Uhnnn!"

It had now just become increasingly more arduous for The Invisible Woman, beauteous super-member of the Fantastic Four, to remain readily aloft, let alone to lend the proverbial hand whenever her colleagues, her family in emotive fact, should such super-assistance be needed. "I…can't…hang on…much longer!"

Having heard his beloved's strained statement, his own super-stretched body, no longer holding itself about the massive mouth of the multi-galactic traveler still standing, in mid-air, high over Manhattan, agonizingly losing its impossible elasticity, as Mr. Fantastic said, "Pain…too great! Can't…hold…on!"

His flaming nature threatening to burn out after several super-hot nova blasts sent against Galactus with little or no noticeable affect, The Human Torch, too, loudly proclaimed, "Can't stay…flamed on! Gonna…fall…gonna…!"

As The Human Torch's self-generating fire sputtered like the flickering flame of a candle resting before a rising breeze, The Thing overcame any and all physical signs of exhaustion and agony in order to desperately drag his ponderous rock-body, hand over heavy hand, up the front of Galactus, while heroically shouting, "Hang on, guys! Ol' Benji ain't tossin' in the towel just yet! Uhngg! If we all live through this, ahhgg, ooofff, I'm gonna…go on a diet! Uhngg!"

Meantime, streaking too fast to be seen by the eyes of his erstwhile colleagues while flying against Galactus, especially while experiencing his own personal pain unlike any Humans could imagine, the Silver Surfer continued to swoop and loop and spiral and dive and spin away atop his shining board, as his gleaming hands blasted away with a power cosmic all his own in order to not only inflict what little actual pain that he could upon his former master, but to kept him off-balance just long enough for…

"We have come in answer to your mental summons, Silver Surfer!"

That booming pronouncement from the skies was delivered, in all possible languages at once, from the leader of the illustrious collection of ex-heralds, consisting of, first and foremost…

Firelord, once known by the mortal name Pyreus Kril, just as Silver Surfer was once Norrin Radd, streaked down with a flame more brilliant and undiluted than anything The Human Torch might muster on his best day…which this most certainly was not. As was evidenced by the flaming boy burning out his plasma and tumbling harmlessly from the air toward what would be a bloody death far, far below.

It would be Firelord who, using his characteristic staff of otherworldly flame as a conduit for his own power cosmic, granted by Galactus himself sometime after the Silver Surfer, who would send forth an infinitesimal amount of universal fire which…

"Flame on!"

Even in the instant that such fire-beyond-fire made tactile contact with the still-tumbling youth, The Human Torch was, in essence, resurrected, as he soared skyward once again amidst a shout of, "Yeeeeee-haaaaaa!"

Next, even as the super-elasticity suffusing Mr. Fantastic's form gave way to unmitigated fatigue and he fell far from the form of Galactus, who, himself, was still trying to strike down the soaring and swooping Surfer and, now, these others…

Red Shift, looking like an airborne rendering of a sword-wielding warrior that could've easily hailed from similar past time-periods of Earth, itself, swooped down and, utilizing his power cosmic in his own singular fashion, rapidly opened an in-atmosphere space-time tunnel which, instantly, sent the falling Mr. Fantastic from mid-air to rooftop of the nearby Baxter Building.

Then, like all the other former heralds heeding the space-time spanning psychic summons of the Silver Surfer, perhaps the most meritorious of them all, streaked straight back toward the now embattled Planet Eater.

Struggle as The Thing tried in an attempt to somehow reach her while hanging onto the jostling giant form of Galactus, calling out, "Hang on, Suzie!", The Invisible Woman's mental manipulation of invisible force vanished as swiftly as, under certain circumstances, she, herself, would've done.

"Ben!"

"Suzie!"

"Sis!"

"Susan, darling!"

Without a word and completely motivated by the salvation of a sentient individual, and a beautiful one at that, Gabriel the Air-Walker, real-name Gabriel Lan, walked down the seeming emptiness of air, utilizing his cosmic control over such unseen molecules, and saved the semi-conscious Invisible Woman, whom he promptly set down on the self-same rooftop as her harried husband, Mr. Fantastic.

A swift smile flashed across the Air-Walker's virtuous features, then he, too, joined in the cosmic combat currently aimed against a former master named Galactus.

"Hey, Matchstick!" shouted The Thing in The Human Torch's direction. "How's about a lift, huh?"

"Sure thing, Lumpy!" said The Human Torch by way of a supposedly snide response ensconced, in actuality, in a truer tone.

Then the flaming one swooped across the impossibly massive chest of Galactus in order to grab onto his fellow fighter for humanity and, heavy as The Thing's solid stone physicality was, managed to streak close enough to the Baxter Building's reinforced rooftop and dropped him like the dead weight he was.

"Hey!" complained The Thing after scrambling to his great rock-like feet. "Give a guy some warnin' next time! You could'a bruised my pretty behind!"

Even though it was clear that The Human Torch wished to join the ex-heralds in striking at Galactus, the Silver Surfer sternly said, "Go back, Johnny Storm! This is no longer a winnable battle for such as you!"

Insulted by such a forceful statement, The Human Torch said, "Fine! See if I'm ever there to cover your shiny ass the next time some cosmic creep decides to dine out!"

Ignoring the utterly illogical retort from the man with the self-generating plasma, currently flying back in the direction of his teammates atop the Baxter Building, the Silver Surfer saw his own cosmic colleagues ferociously fighting Galactus with not only the power provided originally by the Devourer of Worlds, but even person-specific super-weapons such as, in the case of Terrax the Tamer, real-name Tyros the Tyrant, savagely slashing at the third force of the universe…

"Let the ground rise up to secure my former master's great legs, so that he cannot escape my scintillating scythe!"

Terrax the Tamer's seemingly singular control over earthen elements caused several tons of beneath-the-concrete structures of stony ground to reach up by more than a hundred stories to temporarily hold Galactus taut so their cosmic team could strike hard.

As powerful as this collection of cosmically-endowed individuals were, definitely enough to subjugate not just Earth but any number of other such simple humanoids, even such as they could not completely conquer Galactus. Even when the Planet Eater's power-level was low.

However, they were enough, as a consistently attacking team, to eventually drive the Ravager of Planets back into the cold airlessness of space for the singular safety of his worldship, Taa II. His immense Elemental Converter, which had been hovering never far away from its creator, swiftly deconstructing itself even as its component parts returned to Taa II faster still.

Even as the other heralds…Firelord, Red Shift, Gabriel the Air-Walker, and Terrax the Tamer…streaked away at multi-Mach velocities to see to it Galactus did, indeed, exit the Earth's atmosphere and, then, the entire Earth-Moon orbit and, inevitably, this section of the vast universe, Silver Surfer paused long enough to look back at the Fantastic Four.

Though too far from one another to trade parting words, they were capable of casting universal hand-signals of thanks and triumph to stand as silent testimony as to what heroes each had, in actions and in essence, been.

Then, with an exertion of cosmic energies utterly alien to even the genius-level mind of Mr. Fantastic, the Silver Surfer made certain all was as it had been prior to the arrival of the Devourer of Worlds and the ex-heralds of Galactus.

Next, streaking toward the horizon atop his brilliantly gleaming board far too fast for the human eye to truly see, the Surfer would disappear until he'd decide whether or not to one day make his way back to not only the Humans of Earth's New York…but the Fantastic Four as well.

END


	6. EPILOGUE

**EPILOGUE**

While the illustrious individuals of the Fantastic Four, Earth's mightiest team of mortals, almost literally rested upon their metaphorical laurels…

An aggressively scattered set of interstellar shapeshifting masters, thanks to a near-starved Galactus who had previously passed through the Andromeda Galaxy, sent forth their dwindling number in vast starships of war to find…

"We have located it, Sire," said the Skrull General to the throne-seated bloated, by food and drink, Imperial Leader of what little was left of their once supremely powerful reptilian species. "We have located the space-time tunnel left in the wake of the worldship of Galactus. It leads to a neighboring spiral galaxy that, apparently, holds much for such as he to have sought it out."

"Yes, a true prize, General," said the half-drunk head of all that remained of a once mighty Empire. "We must follow it to its inevitable end. And, once there, we shall send shapeshifting infiltration agents to study the next race…to become slaves of the Skrulls."

END?


End file.
